THE Testament of Black Jesus, a self-published book written by renowned Zimbabwean-born author Philani A. Nyoni, will from the beginning of this month become required reading for students enrolled in the study of Third World Literature with the California State University in Los Angeles, USA.
In his text “Reclaiming the Narrative: A Postcolonial Reading of "The Testament of Black Jesus", Prince Gumbi one of the educators at the California State University in Los Angeles says that African storytelling is experiencing a remarkable revival as authors are now reshaping familiar narratives through an African lens, creating a new and evolving tradition.
“There is so much to unpack in this postcolonial retelling that Africanises a foreign religion,” Gumbi wrote.
“It is refreshing to have an African text that is published in Africa by Africans as opposed to the norm where African texts are usually published in the West, which in itself is a form of gatekeeping of knowledge and identity.
“The Testament of Black Jesus offers a radical reimagining. This work not only portrays Jesus as black, but as a black woman.
“This shift makes the deity far more relatable to African audiences who have, for generations, been conditioned to see God as a white man.
“The word "Mulungu," used in parts of southern Africa to refer to white people, is itself a testament to this conditioning. It often stems from pre-colonial words for a high god in various African languages, appropriated and reshaped to fit the colonizer's image.”
Brian Chikwava, the author of the critically acclaimed Harare North in his blurb to the second edition of the book, hails it as a work that “transcends mere storytelling, emerging as both literary exploration and philosophical treatise”.
The book at 101 pages is Nyoni’s fourth solo publication. His works include, Once A Lover Always A Fool (2012), Hewn From Rock (2014) with John Eppel, Mars His Sword (2016) and Philtrum (2017), Ett Kräs bön (2019) in Sweden, a translation of The Sod’s Prayer.
It was released this year during Easter, first in Zimbabwe and then across the world. It follows the story of Mkhanyiselwa, one who purports to be the messiah of a civil war-ravaged people in an unnamed Southern African country.
Beyond the storyline, in The Testament… a skilled wordsmith returns with a bag of tricks and aesthetics that stack value on the read.
It is an epic; one long story written in poetry and structured into six distinct chapters, evoking the classic forms of ancient masterpieces such as The Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh, while also echoing the oral traditions of African griots.
The author describes Mkhanyiselwa as “Mustafa’s long lost cousin”, citing the lead character from ‘The Prophet’ written by Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran.
The two characters are more concerned with how human beings treat each other as opposed to a faith based on an afterlife. “In its simplest form,” Nyoni says, “the story is about Ubuntu”.
The reading list is structured to include some of the finest epics from the African literary canon such as the Sudiata Epic from Mali, the Chaka epi poem by Molofo. The course is designed with a strong focus on African mythmaking and postcolonial hybridity, the texts are meant to relate to each other, with the strongest point being the epic form and mythology.
As a postcolonial retelling of a religion introduced by colonial forces, The Testament Of Black Jesus is perfectly situated at the intersection of the course design and outlook.
Currently in Sweden for a cultural exchange programme, Nyoni’s artistic output spans literature, film and theatre. His work has been published in at least fifteen countries including translations in Swedish and Spanish.
According to recordsetter.com, Nyoni holds a World Record in the Shakespearean Sonnet form since 2016 alongside over a dozen international nominations for prose, drama and poetry, including one for the 2022 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition.
He however regards The Testament of Black Jesus as his most significant work.
Its publication came after a six-year hiatus following his 2017 publication, Philtrum, later updated to Philtrum 2.0 in 2018 following the removal of Robert Mugabe from office.
He describes the process of working on The Testament of Black Jesus as full of redundancies and repetitiveness.
He states that he first structured it as a play to create what he describes as an exploded diagram of the entire project so each part of the work could stand alone and be correctly calibrated.
For him the aesthetic value would not be too hard to figure out; his major concern was locking down the storyline and the project’s philosophy before assembling the project into its final form.
This version earned the writer his second nomination for the African Writers’ Award in 2019, it was further developed and stage-read under the directorship of Theresa Muchemwa during the Almasi African Playwrights’ Conference in 2020.
Nyoni, who has made his mark as a precise and deliberate wordsmith has often taken three years between projects.
“This time it took twice as long and I am doubly happy about the outcome,” he said.